Federal court rejects new Texas voter photo ID law

AUSTIN, Texas 
A tough Texas law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls discriminates against low-income blacks and Hispanics, a federal court ruled Thursday, wiping out for the November election a measure championed by conservatives and setting up a potential U.S. Supreme Court showdown.

In Washington, a three-judge panel unanimously ruled that the 2011 law imposes "strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor" and noted that Texas' racial minorities are more likely to live in poverty.

It was the state's second major loss in court in three days, coming after a separate federal panel ruled Tuesday that Texas' Republican-dominated Legislature failed to avoid "discriminatory purposes" when drawing new maps for congressional districts and both houses of the state Legislature to reflect Texas' booming population.

"In a matter of two days, the state of Texas has had its dirty laundry aired out across the national stage," said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Conference. "This deals with the despicable issues of discrimination, voter suppression, these are things that we're not proud of."

The voter ID decision could set a precedent for upcoming legal challenges to similar laws in other states. South Carolina's strict photo ID law is on trial this week in the same federal courthouse.

It also underscores a widespread push, largely by Republican-controlled legislatures and governors' offices, to impose strict identification requirements on voters. But Democrats say fraud at the polls is largely nonexistent and that Republicans are trying to disenfranchise minorities, poor people and college students - all groups that tend to vote Democratic.

State Attorney General Greg Abbott said he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, "where we are confident we will prevail." He also told the Associated Press late Thursday that there is now definitely not enough time to salvage the law for the November election.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry said, "Chalk up another victory for fraud. Today, federal judges subverted the will of the people of Texas."

Perry did not reference specific examples, but Texas presented witnesses during court proceedings in July who testified that either they had heard about fraud or had spoken to constituents who were concerned about it.

The Justice Department, meanwhile, called witnesses who said that in-person voter fraud incidents were extremely rare. And Thursday's ruling said fraud wasn't the deciding factor and instead found that Texas forcing voters to show ID put an unnecessary burden on the poor.

The Justice Department also called several lawmakers, all of them Democrats, who said they detected a clear racial motive in the push for the law. Lawyers for Texas argued that the state was simply tightening its laws.

"The law was so broad and unreasonable that clearly its goal was to suppress minority votes and thereby change the nature of the Texas electorate," said Gary Bledsoe, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Texas.

Texas called experts in July who demonstrated that voter ID laws had a minimal effect on turnout, and Republican state lawmakers testified that the legislation was the result of a popular demand for more election protections.